The rest of the Planet Express staff has had it with Dr. Zoidberg's malpractice, but it seems Professor Farnsworth has a real reason to keep the alien around, besides cheap labor. A reason that dates back to Farnsworth's and Zoidberg's first meeting, on a yeti-hunt for Mom long ago...
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: Zoidberg somehow made Bender incontinent, and now he pees himself when he laughs. Fry laughs at this and Bender retorts "It's not funny! Well, it is a little funny. He, he, he... Uh-oh!"
- Alien Blood: The yeti has green blood.
- Anatomically Ignorant Healing: Zoidberg's penchant for this reaches its absolute nadir in this episode, as he mutilates the entire crew (Bender included!) while trying to cure Fry's jaundice.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The normally laid-back Fry is the first one to suggest killing Zoidberg when the latter's Anatomically Ignorant Healing results in the entire crew being mutilated, and especially after he somehow made his best friend Bender incontinent.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Farnsworth and Zoidberg met each other during a yeti hunt. Farnsworth transforms into a yeti in the climax of the episode.
- Body Horror: Most of the Planet Express crew get horrifically mutilated as a result of Zoidberg's incompetence: Leela's upper and lower halves are visibly separated with her spine being completely visible and making horrifying cracking noises every time she moves, Hermes has Scruffy's lower half sandwiched upside down between his torso (followed by his entire body falling apart), Scruffy is reduced to a head connected to an arm and Fry cycles through Simpsons jaundice, Garfield syndrome, Muppet gangrene and an unnamed Smurf-esque condition. Amy is the only human mostly spared, instead in a hypnotic trance and having one of her kidneys stolen.
- Bowdlerisation:
- On Sky in the UK, the part in the flashback where Professor Farnsworth says "Those poor, doomed bastards!" is cut.
- The part in the flashback where Professor Farnsworth is stabbing the Yeti is edited to remove him saying "I lost my virginity during the film, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details."
- Distant Prologue: The episode opens with a flashback to Farnsworth and Zoidberg's first meeting, then cuts back and forth between then and the present day.
- The Dreaded: Zoidberg has a reputation as such an infamously bad doctor that real doctors use his name as a noun.Doctor: Man, the guy who did this must have been a real Zoidberg.Hermes: It was Zoidberg!
- Epic Fail: While this is nothing new to Zoidberg, he manages to botch multiple attempts at healing all in a row- each one the result of the previous attempt. When they finally visit an actually competent doctor to get themselves fixed up, Hermes has Scruffy's lower half sandwiched upside down between his own upper and lower torso, Fry has settled onto resembling a Smurf (after previously being afflicted with Simpsons jaundice, Garfield syndrome, and Muppet gangrene), Leela's upper and lower halves are still separated by the spine extension and she's struggling to keep the upper half balanced, Scruffy has been reduced to just a head stitched on top of a single arm, Amy was hypnotized (and Zoidberg stole one of her kidneys) and Bender somehow became incontinent.
- First-Name Basis: Zoidberg is shown to be on this with Mom (whose real first name is "Carol").
- Hidden Depths: This episode reveals that Zoidberg's actually a perfectly competent doctor...for aliens (but not humans or, in Bender's case, robots).
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When the crew confronts Zoidberg on his malpractice, Fry tells him that nobody wants to see him again after telling him he's a terrible doctor. Then, almost on cue, the Professor comes in and tells Zoidberg that he wants to see him right now.Fry: We don't know why the Professor keeps you around and we don't care. You're a terrible doctor! Nobody wants to see you ever again!Farnsworth: Dr. Zoidberg! I want to see you right now!
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Zoidberg shows just how competent a doctor he actually is by successfully fighting off yeti Farnsworth and curing him with none of his usual incompetence.
- Magical Defibrillator: Zoidberg tries to shock the Professor to death with some wires he pulled out of a fuse box, but then he has a heart attack and dies, so Zoidberg puts the wires back. The wires then fall out and shock Farnsworth back to life.
- Mercy Kill Arrangement: Thinking he has hypermalaria, Farnsworth makes Zoidberg promise to kill him quickly so he wouldn't suffer whenever it kicks in.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: In the same manner as a werewolf, a yeti scratches the Professor and infects him with a disease that transforms him into one.
- Person as Verb: When a real doctor sees the effects of Zoidberg's failed surgery on the crew, he comments that the doctor for them must have been "A real Zoidberg."
- Pet the Dog: Mom towards Zoidberg—she's shown to like and respect Zoidberg enough for the two of them to be on a First-Name Basis with each other, and she gives up the severed Yeti-head in exchange for a coupon for a free tanning session.
- Pineal Weirdness: Dr. Zoidburg cures the Professor's yetism by transferring the pineal gland of a yeti into him, the explanation being that it produces a counter-toxin to the one in the yeti's claws.
- Potty Failure: Thanks to his malpractice, Zoidberg (somehow) manages to make Bender incontinent.
- Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: The "Murdolator" that the Planet Express crew build to Mercy Kill the Professor in Zoidberg's place.
- Scare Quotes: The M in M.D. on Zoidberg's office door is in quotation marks.
- Sequential Symptom Syndrome: As Amy lists the symptoms of Tritonian hypermalaria, the Professor suffers through each one as she mentions them. When she gets to death, the Professor lies unconscious...and a beat later he says "Yes!"
- Shout-Out: Fry starts out with Simpsons jaundice, which makes his skin yellow. Due to Zoidberg's bungling, he gets diseases that make him look like Garfield, Kermit the Frog and a Smurf.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Getting scratched by a Tritonian yeti causes the Professor to turn into a Tritonian yeti. The cure involves transferring one of the yeti's glands into him in order to flush out the yeti neurotoxin. It turns him into a double yeti first, then cures him.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Bender, Fry, and the Professor don't seem even to notice when Zoidberg puts three bullets through the window of the room they're in.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The Professor calls out everyone for imprisoning Zoidberg and tells them he asked Zoidberg to kill him.
